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The Microbiome Insights team gathered with nearly 100 clients, friends, and supporters on May 28th for a champagne reception to celebrate the company’s continued growth and the opening of its new laboratory facility in the award-winning Pharmaceutical Sciences Building at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The event was topped off by remarks by the esteemed Dr. Julian Davies, UBC Professor Emeritus and chair of the External Scientific Board of the NIH Human Microbiome Project from 2009-2012.

In his speech, Davies gave a brief history of how the Human Microbiome Project came to be. He traced microbiome research up to the present day, saying: “Microbiome science is really getting going and I think it’s great that UBC has its own microbiome company. We should support them as strongly as possible.”

Company co-founders Drs. Brett Finlay and Bill Mohn were in attendance at the reception, along with Microbiome Insights clients, advisors, investors, granting agencies, and strategic collaborators.

CEO Malcolm Kendall said, “The microbiome is a really important area of science that is an important part of human, animal, plant and environmental health.” He emphasized that the company is not merely a service provider — but that the team members have a wealth of knowledge and are actively moving the science forward. “As we gain more understanding in this area we hope to be able to use microbiome derived products, tools, and services to enhance health and potentially cure or treat diseases,” he said.

Kendall also announced that Microbiome Insights hopes to foster the growing microbiome research community at UBC as a founding sponsor of the first annual UBC Microbiome Conference, to be held November 8 to 10, 2018.

The company hosted a microbiome poster competition alongside the reception, with winners receiving free sequencing services. Kevin Zhong, a postdoc at UBC’s Suttle Lab, received the top prize (50 free samples of amplicon sequencing); Peter Rahfeld and Spence Macdonald from Withers Lab received 2nd place (30 free samples of amplicon sequencing) and 3rd place (20 free samples of amplicon sequencing), respectively. The people’s choice award (a cash prize of $250) went to Peter Dobranowski of BCCHR.